Key Bridge in Baltimore collapses

[wolfking]

I saw that on the news last night here, fucking shocking seeing those cars go down.  Imagine being in one of those, holy fuck!  The thing just crumpled like paper.

[orcus116]

There's a bridge over the Hudson River that I have to drive frequently enough to give me agita.   It is two lanes in both directions, but it's an exceedingly flat road bed, and there's no curbs on the outside edge.  I'm scared of heights, and that bridge is a nightmare for me.  This isn't going to make that any better. 

Knowing you're from CT I'm assuming it's the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge on 84.

On the general topic of bridge ratings I was working in a bridge group as an intern when the I35 bridge collapse happened and we had a discussion on it. There were definitely issues but something that irked us was when the news was going on and on about the gusset plate failure and made everyone freak out about gusset plates which are a common part of bridge construction. The standard bridge ratings themselves sound a bit scarier than they are and it may be rare than a bridge is in imminent danger of collapsing on its own. The system may have changed but at the time it seemed like a report that got to the news where neither the newscasters nor the public could properly draw conclusions from the results other than "Looks like I'm going to die going over this thing."

[Chino]

This is one of those disasters that's going to be fascinating to watch the cleanup of. It might be one of the biggest recovery/salvage efforts since the Costa Concordia mishap a few years back. I imagine this will probably be one of the fastest-paced infrastructure projects we've seen in this country in a long time. Even with all hands on deck, this will take years.

The video was surreal.

[hunnus2000]

This is one of those disasters that's going to be fascinating to watch the cleanup of. It might be one of the biggest recovery/salvage efforts since the Costa Concordia mishap a few years back. I imagine this will probably be one of the fastest-paced infrastructure projects we've seen in this country in a long time. Even with all hands on deck, this will take years.

The video was surreal.

Yeah, at the risk of sounding Krass, a documentary on this would be pretty cool.

[cramx3]

Yeah, at the risk of sounding Krass, a documentary on this would be pretty cool.

I'm sure Netflix is already working on it 

[hunnus2000]

I'm sure Netflix is already working on it 

Good point! 

[Stadler]

This is one of those disasters that's going to be fascinating to watch the cleanup of. It might be one of the biggest recovery/salvage efforts since the Costa Concordia mishap a few years back. I imagine this will probably be one of the fastest-paced infrastructure projects we've seen in this country in a long time. Even with all hands on deck, this will take years.

The video was surreal.

It really was.  I generally am not interested in those kinds of videos, but I found myself watching it over and over as it unfolded.

[HOF]

I watched the video on my phone initially, but watching it on my computer monitor just now I didn't realize how clearly you can see the cars crossing the bridge, as well as the DOT vehicles that were still on the bridge when it collapsed. It looks like there were no cars on the bridge when it went down though, and you can see the last two to enter speed across a few seconds before the collision. Just wild stuff.

[jingle.boy]

So watching the timer of that video, it was just over 4 minutes from the first power loss to the collision, and about 20 seconds for the bridge to collapse.  Amazing that the mayday and subsequent responders were able to JUST get the flow of traffic stopped, but unfortunate that the road workers couldn't be notified.  :'(

Power loss - 1:24:30 (ish)
Last vehicle travelling from left - 1:25:20
Last vehicles travelling from right - 1:27:30
Collision - 1:28:45 (ish)

The collapse is fascinating to watch, but I don't like to do so because I know I'm watching 6 people lose their lives 

[hunnus2000]

The ship sent out a mayday distress call and the police were able to halt traffic both ways. Kudos to the authorities for this as it could have been A LOT worse.

I would be interested in seeing an interview with those who made it across as I'm pretty sure they didn't know what was happening.

And yes, 6 people lost their lives and it's extremely tragic and sad.